15 Photos Where Cropping Changes Everything

Put your Photoshop hat on and check out the magical power of cropping. Removing some pixels distorts reality and fools the viewers, most often with dire consequences.

Everyone hates them now! The uncropped photos forever ruined the lives of those who enjoyed toying with our emotions.

1. Leave The Water! Now!

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A shadow is slipping across the bottom of the sea. That’s how most sharks begin their stealth attacks.

You will be relieved to know that the full frame doesn’t include a frightened surfer running for its life. It doesn’t even include a severed member floating in blood infested waters. We will leave such awful scenarios for another time.

Things are not always what they seem. The horrifying creature of the seven seas is nothing but a bird enjoying a shallow pond.

That is just a small sample of the tricks cropping can play on the human mind. All you have to do is remove enough information from the picture to make it confusing.

Do you envy those perfect shots couples take while on vacation? Coming up next is something for you to feel better.

2. The Invisible Third Wheel

A horseback ride through the waves is not always as idyllic as it appears.

Switching the car for a horse complicates things for those used with pressing buttons and controlling everything. Horses are moody and unpredictable animals that can ruin your fun in an instant.

That’s why most riding experiences require someone else to come along with you. Taming the beasts adds a third wheel most couples dread.

This photo proves just how much compromise is taken on board to make your friends and family jealous. The poor man struggling to comfort the horses adds up to the obvious photographer.

Cropping was a cheap trick used to hide the less attractive truth. If you want to remain in the saddle and avoid a horseshoe to the face, you have to put up with that annoying guide that barely speaks English.

The next cropped photo puts your dirty mind to a rough test.

3. Is Not What You Think!

What are these two lads doing down there?

Don’t worry! The two were just fooling around like brothers, and there is no awkward tension between them whatsoever.

The stomach punch appears rude and violent, when, in fact, it’s their way of expressing genuine male bond. Nothing beats coughing blood after your pal just taught you how to take it like a man.

The two besties decided to share such a coronation of their relationship on social media. The photo begged for someone to open Photoshop and do the cropping.

The fallout made them avoid such close encounters in the future. Hundreds of mean comments questioned their orientation and proved once more the power of photo manipulation.

The next cropping job puts you on an emotional roller coaster.

4. One Image – Two Ways To Crop It

Some photos contain so many things going on at the same time you can pick more than one cropping area.

Nothing paints the many faces of war more vividly like the above pic. Confused viewers should put themselves in the shoes of the poor man that lies between life and death.

The captured soldier woke up to a ‘good cop – bad cop’ conundrum. Can you imagine the taste that water has when you have a smoking gun stacked against your head?

War is not Counter Strike. You just don’t open some beers with your ‘enemy’ once the ‘game’ is over. Although the Geneva Convention says war prisoners deserve humane treatment, we all know the gruesome methods employed to obtain vital information.

We won’t bother thinking about the ethics of using cropped versions of the last photo. Hiding the truth makes even civilians look awful.

The next uncropped photos revealed a disturbing technique both men and women use when they feel lonely.

5. Bae Caught Me Sleeping

There are many reasons why people post photos of them sleeping.

We all look cute and innocent in bed sheets, and the immediate assumption is that someone else was there to take the shot. The two wanted the rest of the world to know they have a caring girlfriend/boyfriend.

What they failed to do was to delete the uncropped version of the photo. Someone was evil enough to dig up dirty little secrets. The extra pixels speak for themselves.

Desperate for attention, the two staged sleeping sessions and took selfies. Extra points go to the girl that garnished her face with chips. The bloke, on the other hand, displays incredible foot dexterity.

They hoped to spur jealousy amongst friends. They ended up looking ridiculous and drowning in pity. Desperate for attention, they got more than they were begging.

The next cropped photo triggered vivid emotions. It turned out to be something else.

7. Airlines Hate Him!

The smile on his face tells it all.

All his friends hated him for a splendid reason. Jimmy here concluded his Dubai trip with a textbook selfie.

The luxurious Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in the background seems taken out of the wall of a travel agency. The hint should be enough to uncover the lie behind this once in a lifetime experience.

The uncropped picture shows just how easy it is nowadays to go anywhere in the world. Forget about hunting down the cheapest flight tickets and learning your way through an exotic language. All you have to do is get proficient in Photoshop.

The prankster was caught red-handed and exposed. Take a look at the stack of travel destinations waiting by the TV. The man apparently wants the title of globe-trotter attached to his name.

A disturbing truth saw the light together with an uncropped shot.

8. Fake Boyfriend Hand

There is nothing more romantic that posting photos of you dragging your boyfriend to greet the world.

What happens when you fail to have a lover, yet crave after those shots? It’s simple. Buy yourself a selfie stick in the form of a realistic human hand.

Brilliant as it is, the trick fooled even anatomy experts. The lie propagated itself everywhere until someone was brave enough to come forward and expose the practice.

The fake boyfriend hand opened the Pandora’s Box of benefits modern technology can provide to a desperate, lonely woman. Malicious friends showed no mercy when they bombarded her account with smart-ass comments.

The spiciest remark came from one that suggested another good use of that hand. It should be clear by now that the incorrectly cropped photo spelled social media suicide for that lady.

Being an optimist is about showing the right parts only. Curious on how photo cropping can help?

9. Nice Ride!

As a young man, you have to show up with a decent ride.

After all, that’s what makes you a magnet for the ladies. But the only thing this bloke attracted was a piece of scrap metal. Even with the dictionary around, it is hard to force your mind to think of the word ‘car.’

The unlucky fellow thought he would get away by cropping the nasty details out. What he didn’t remember was saving the work before unleashing the pic on social media.

No, it didn’t help him to add a caption saying this was grandpa’s car. No one is that stupid to believe that cliff hanger. Not even flaunting his new job at the scrap yard qualified as a decent explanation.

Remember kids, always say ‘yes’ when Photoshop asks you if you want to save.

The next photo was inexplicable until someone remembered how easy it is to remove elements from the frame.

10. The Flying Ship

Something is not right when a ship appears to float up in the clouds.

Hundreds of meters above the sea surface, the strange apparition was either the Jolly Roger or a clear sign the photographer traveled by accident to a parallel Universe?

Conspiracy theory believers will not like the truth. It turned out to be nothing but a hoax, made special by the fact that even the full picture is bewildering.

Those unfamiliar with the ups and downs of this remote Norwegian town would have no idea that the fog can play such cruel tricks on the eye.

We might have to wait a couple of decades before modern science will allow multi-ton vessels to roam freely through the skies. Was the photographer trying to play prophet here?

Staged vacation photos are now the norm. The next shot shows why no one is traveling for real.

11. A Quick Vacation

When they are not used to reproduce lady parts, the knees work great for the setup of an ideal vacation photo. Or do they?

In this modern age of Photoshop, one would be better off with its eyes popped out. A while ago, seeing was believing. Everything changed once people started investing their time in elaborate visual scams.

Why spend thousands of dollars on expensive getaways when you can impress people by not taking a single coin out of the pocket. Even couch potatoes will find the method comfortable and hassle-free.

All you have to do is set your laptop’s desktop background to something eye-catching and use two of your fingers. Voila, you get to impress everyone with your appetite for high-budget destinations.

Tanning salons can make your game even more convincing. Just make sure you delete the uncropped photos. Don’t be the guy that posts them side-by-side and does harm to the whole industry.

You have to see how women use to give men trust issues.

12. A Perfect Profile Pic Requires Serious Cropping

There is a good reason why most girls crop their profile pics somewhere at neck level.

We get it. Today’s beauty standards are impossible, and they can wreak havoc on someone’s self-esteem, but that’s not an excuse for hiding the truth.

Most men would probably be disappointed to find out the women they obsessed about is big-boned. Cropping a pic just so that it shows you in a favorable light is a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, real life will step in to give a slap in the face.

Social media hedonism is a guilty pleasure of our times. Nevertheless, we see this lovely young girl doing miles instead of ‘likes.’ We firmly believe adding some cardio to her daily agenda would help her get in shape and destroy her shyness regarding looks.

Even rock bands used the cropping technique to make album art more appealing.

13. Cropping Makes Album Cover Less Awkward

Fans of Nirvana will be thrilled to see the uncropped photo for the cover of the ‘Nevermind’ album.

Yep, they had to place the baby in the water for real to make it look cool enough. However, the one-dollar bill bait attracted more than the toddler’s attention.

Both a shark and a dolphin showed up during shootings, and only God knows how producers avoided the tragedy. The question about drowning is irrelevant. You should have known that newborns are excellent swimmers after nine months spent in the miniature Aqualand of the placenta.

Cropping was an obvious choice here, and we won’t get into too much detail. It’s enough to say that meddling sea creatures and the shipwreck would have ruined the composition.

Check out the secret behind those incredible Instagram shots!

14. Perfect Instagram Pics Debunked

Did it ever cross your mind that we perceive as perfection is nothing more than removing the bad pixels?

Check out the lovely lady showcasing incredible balance skills. Cropping made that shot Instagram material. The full picture reveals just pathetic we are in our hunt for the incredible.

A perfect day at the beach, right? That’s the conclusion if you guide yourself only by the small square that remained after the crop. Her special connection with the sea was spoiled by random kids goofing around. But no, friends must envy her for her fabulous life.

Cropping is a dangerous tool if we use it to remove that part of the reality we don’t particularly enjoy. Unfortunately, there is no real-life equivalent to cropping, and that might be disappointing to some.

The next photo sealed the fate for one of the most enduring Internet myths.

15. Fake Cliffhanger

Incredible shots with daredevils holding a good grip on a rock thousands of feet above the void made us all pray for their lives.

While we don’t technically deal with a crop here, the case proved to be such a scandalous fake it deserves our attention. The rocky outcrop on the Brazilian seaside is approximately one meter above the ground and poses no danger at all.

The location became a Mecca for individuals desiring a gravity-defying shot. Photographers don’t have to work too much. Meters away from the overhanging rock there’s an excellent spot for getting the angle just right.